The nation is reeling in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump. In the aftermath, Wyoming Public Radio reporters hit the Cheyenne streets to find out what citizens are thinking and feeling.
Some, like retired food service worker Patricia Pearson, recalled the day that John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas.
"I was at school, sitting at my desk in my classroom," Pearson said, fighting back tears. "And it came over the speaker. And we all put our heads on the table and we all cried."
He cried through the whole thing
Others had similar recollections. Mike Theriault, a retired contractor, was transported back to the years between middle and high school, when his family lived in Coachella Valley, California.
Theriault remembered listening to John F. Kennedy's funeral mass on the radio with his dad.
"A farmer, metallurgist and a Christian man who never cried," Theriault said of his dad. "We didn't have a TV but we listened to the funeral. I remember my dad cried through the whole thing. And, finally, he said: 'What's happening to this country?'"
Theriault said that the attempt on former President Trump's life shows how divided our country is right now.
"Both sides have to come together, because this is unacceptable," he added. "Whether Democrat or Republican, we've got to come together to get this country back where it needs to be."
Universal sadness and grief
Brent Knotts, a retired administrator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said that he remembered distinctly walking home from school on the afternoon of November, 23, 1963.
"One of my friends caught up to me," Knotts said. "And he said: 'The president's been shot.' I ran home and we watched it on the TV."
Knotts said that the universal sadness and grief from that day is still with him. But there's something about the rhetoric in the week following the attempt on Trump's life that was absent from the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination.
"There wasn't all this acrimony," Knotts said. "And the presumptive Vice Presidential nominee wasn't blaming Kennedy's death on republicans, without any real evidence, to rile up voters."
Like the others who spoke with WPR, Knotts stressed the importance of civilized discourse and unity to heal our deeply fractured nation.
National outlets report that Trump has revised his Republican National Convention keynote speech to stress unity.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
